And from among you there
should be a party who invite to good and enjoin the right
and forbid the wrong. And these are they who are
successful. 1

Only one claimant
appeared at the head of the century:After having these preliminary
discussions we must see if there has been a mujaddid
during the fourteenth century Hijrah or not, in
accordance with God's promise delivered to the ummah
by the sacred tongue of the Holy Prophet. And if there has
been any, who is that person and what work he has done and
whether it is the same work, or something else which should
have been done according to the needs of this
age.

Let us take the first part of this
question. If no mujaddid had appeared at the head of
this century, it meant that the Divine promise had not been
fulfilled, God forbid! We cannot say that this century did
not stand in need of any mujaddid, or, no
mujaddid appeared. The only question then, that
remains is: Who is that mujaddid? For a seeker of
truth, no doubt, the answer is simple and clear. The one who
was appointed by God in this century openly declared himself
to be the mujaddid and conveyed his message to the
whole world. There can be more than one mujaddid in a
century, of course, but the one who was going to appear at
the head of this century was also going to fulfil some of
the prophecies relating to this age and accordingly, a great
task was awaiting him. As God willed, there appeared only
one mujaddid at the head of this century throughout
the world, so that the seekers of truth may find a clear
sign in recognising him. In the whole world, it was only
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, who declared at the head of
the fourteenth century that God had appointed him the
mujaddid. If there were other claimants to this
office, a person had the right to reject one and accept
another. However, God's plan worked in a different way, that
only one person announced himself as the mujaddid so
that nobody should raise any objection against accepting his
claim. Thus our first question as to who was the mujaddid
appointed at the head of the fourteenth century
Hijrah has been answered in a clear and explicit
manner.

Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad's claim of being a
mujaddid:Although his claim of Divine
appointment as well as his being the muhaddath (one
spoken to by God), was expressly mentioned in his book,
Barahin-i Ahmadiyyah, this book only reached the
hands of a selected few. Therefore, he published seperately
twenty thousand copies of a poster in which he clearly
proclaimed himself to be a mujaddid. Besides its
circulation in Urdu on such a large scale, its translation
into English was also published. The preliminary remarks of
this poster were as follows:

"The book, Barahin-i
Ahmadiyyah, is compiled by the author who has been
inspired by God and appointed by Him for the reformation
and renovation of Islam. Along with this book is a
poster, offering a prize of ten thousand rupees. The
substance of the book is that in the world, the true
religion is Islam by means of which a man believes from
the core of his heart in God - Who is free from every
blemish and imperfection and is pure and perfect in His
attributes . And in this book the truth of Islam has
been established in two ways. Firstly, by three hundred
strong intellectual arguments. Secondly, by those
heavenly signs which are most essential to prove the
perfect truthfulness of a true religion."

These signs, then, are divided into
three categories.

"Firstly, the signs which the
opponents of Islam witnessed at the hand of the Holy
Prophet himself... secondly, the signs which are found
permanently in the Quran and thirdly, the signs
which are received by way of inheritance by a follower
through allegiance to the Book of God and the Holy
Prophet. This servant of Allah has given manifest proof
by the grace of Allah, the Almighty, that many of the
true inspirations and signs and wonders that have been
accepted are a part of the religious experience of this
servant of the Faith, and the truth of these have been
witnessed by many of the religious opponents, (the Aryas
for instance). All these matters have been stated in this
book, and the author has been given the knowledge that he
is the mujaddid of this time and that spiritually
his excellences resemble those of the Messiah, son of
Mary, and one of them bears a very strong resemblance and
a close affinity to the other. And to him has been
granted, on the pattern of special grace of prophets and
messengers, excellence over many great righteous servants
(auliya) who have passed away before him, only on
account of the blessings of following the best of men and
the best of the messengers, the Holy Prophet, may the
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. And to follow
in his footsteps is the cause of salvation, felicity and
blessing, and to go against him is the cause of
(spiritual) remoteness (bu`d) and distress
(hirman)." 2

In the aforementioned references not
only has an open claim been made of his being the
mujaddid of this age but the Founder has also
explained the real object of the advent of a
mujaddid, that is, he is sent for the support of the
Islamic faith. As this support is needed in every age,
therefore God had instituted the appointment of
mujaddids. The Founder then put forth the heavenly
signs which were granted to him in support of the
truthfulness of Islam, and which showed that a mujaddid
appeared only as a servant of Islam. Almost all the
great `ulama of the country looked at his claim
approvingly because they were expecting the advent of a
mujaddid of the century. On the one hand, nobody
before him had announced himself as mujaddid of the
century before him, and on the other, after the Founder's
claim, nobody had the courage to make such a claim even for
the sake of opposing him.

After the Founder's claim, as will be
shown a little later, a storm of opposition arose against
him and fair and foul means were all used to denounce him
and destroy his mission. But as to the point that he was the
only claimant for the fourteenth century, God neither let
this fact become dubious, nor did anyone suggest that the
hadith about the mujaddid was inauthentic -
and how could a claim based on such a fabricated tradition
be true? Maulavi Muhammad Hussain Batalavi, who was the
leader of the Ahl-i Hadith, himself wrote a long review on
the book, Barahin-i Ahmadiyyah, and in strong words
supported him and his claims and admitted his great service
to the cause of Islam. In short, the Founder's claim was
made when people were looking forward to it and most of them
welcomed it.

The services
rendered to Islam by the Founder of the Ahmadiyya
Movement:The reason for the acceptance
of his claim was not only that it was made right at the time
of its expectancy but also that the Founder was renowned for
his scholarship and piety and for the services he had
rendered to the cause of religion and for the strong
arguments he had given for establishing the truth of Islam,
and for his deep understanding of the Quran found in his
writings. When people were becoming neglectful about their
duty towards Islam, the Founder devoted all his time, energy
and financial resources to the service of Islam and showed
integrity of character, uprightness and great steadfastness
in the face of severe opposition and never wavered for a
moment from the mission which God had assigned to him. All
these matters were combined in his person and people bowed
their heads in respect before him and acknowledged openly
that, in truth, this was the person who could be the true
master of the ship of Islam in this turbulent age. Maulavi
Muhammad Hussain's review of Barahin-i Ahmadiyyah was
not an ordinary review. In it he included a summary of this
great book and also recorded some of the Founder's
inspirations (ilhamat). After listing all these, the
review began with the following words:

"This is the sum and
substance of this book. Now we express our brief opinion
about it without exaggeration. In our opinion, this book
in this age and in view of the present circumstances, is
such that the like of it has not been written up to this
time in Islam, and nothing can be said about the future;
Allah may bring about another affair after this. Its
author, too, has proved himself firm in helping the cause
of Islam, with his property, with his pen and tongue and
with his personal religious experience, to such an extent
that an example of it is rarely met with among the
Muslims who have gone before. If any one looks upon these
words of ours as an Asiatic exaggeration, let him point
out to us at least one such book that has in it such
forceful refutation of all classes of opponents of Islam,
especially the Arya Samaj and the Brahmu Samaj, so
emphatically and forcefully, and let him give us the
names of two or three persons, the helpers of the cause
of Islam, who besides helping Islam with their
properties, their person, their pens and their tongues,
have also come forward with their religious experience
and have proclaimed against the opponents of Islam and
the deniers of revelation the manly challenge, that
whoever doubted the truth of revelation might come to
them and witness the truth thereof, and who have made
non-Muslims taste of the same." 3

This is the testimony given by the pen
of a person who later became the most implacable opponent of
the Founder. This review, comprising 152 pages, was
published in Isha'at al-Sunnah vol. 7, Nos. 6, 7, 8,
9, 10 and 11. In this review, in many places he mentions
several of the Founder's inspirations . Thus on page 192 of
No.7 he quoted the following ilham:

"I decided to appoint a
vicegerent (khalifah), so I created Adam."

As an explanation of this
ilham, Muhammad Hussain writes, (quoting the words of
the Founder):

"This only connotes spiritual
office and succession and Adam also does not mean the
father of mankind. It means a person through whom, after
establishing a movement of direction and guidance, a
foundation of spiritual revival (for mankind) will be
laid. In other words, he will be the spiritual father for
the seekers after truth And this is a grand prophecy
pointing towards the establishment of a spiritual
movement at a time when this movement does not even exist
in name."

"Similarly in the words of
the verse (15:94) fasda' (therefore declare
openly), he, (i.e.. the Founder), considers that the Holy
Prophet was the person who was addressed in these words
but when in the same words God addressed him, (i.e. the
Founder), then, in these words, (not in the verses of the
Quran) he considers that they refer to his lying down,
sometimes wrapped up in a garment and it means his
appointment for the manifestation of truth."
4

And on page 277 in this review, the
Founder's claim of being a mujaddid has been
reproduced:

"And the author has been
given the knowledge that he is the mujaddid of his
time."

The following remarks by the Founder
have further been added:

"And he has been granted,
excellence over many great righteous servants
(auliya') and obtained characteristics of
prophethood and messengership on account of the blessings
of perfectly following the best of men and the best of
messengers, the Holy Prophet, may the peace and blessings
of Allah be upon him. And to follow in his footsteps is
the cause of salvation, felicity and blessing and to go
against him is the cause of (spiritual) remoteness and
distress."

At the end of this review, to silence
the opponents, Maulavi Muhammad Hussain mentioned the names
of many Muslim luminaries who have expressed the same views
about ilham as expressed by the author of
Barahin-i Ahmadiyyah. In this connection, he quoted
from the books entitled Mansab-i Imamat and
Sirat-i Mustaqim by Maulana Muhammad Isma'il Shahid
and says:

"You should read the book
Mansab-i Imamat from pages 3 to 42, then you will
notice that that what I have claimed, rather all that I
have said and whatever has been claimed and said in the
Barahin-i Ahmadiyyah, are fully supported by that
book." 5

References from the writings of
Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz and Shah Waliullah and from the
writings of many early dignitaries of Islam have also been
quoted and all this has been put forward to prove that
whatever has been stated in the Barahin-i Ahmadiyyah
is precisely according to the beliefs of the

Ahl-i Sunnah wa'l-Jama`at. Towards the
end of the review he writes:

"The author of the
Barahin-i Ahmadiyyah has saved the honour of
Muslims. He challenged the opponents of Islam to an
encounter and made the announcement to most parts of the
world that any one who entertained any doubts should come
to him and see with his own eyes the truth of Islam by
intellectual arguments from the Quran and from the
miracles of the prophethood of Muhammad (by which he
means his own inspirations and supernatural signs)."
6

With this prayer he ended the
review:

"O God! The Guide of the
seekers of truth, show mercy to him more than his own
parents and more than all the affectionate ones in the
whole world. O God! Create the love of this book in the
hearts of the people and enrich them with the blessings
of this book. And for the sake of some righteous servant
of Thine, O God, confer on this humble ashamed sinner the
special blessings and bounties of this book.
Amin!'' 7

The
Mujaddid's mission:His claim has been mentioned
above. But what was his mission? This has clearly been
explained in Barahin-i Ahmadiyyah and the Poster
(Ishtihar), which was published along with it. This
showed that the great work which was assigned to him was not
an ordinary work of reformation but the real object of his
appointment as a mujaddid was to establish by
intellectual and spiritual arguments and signs the supremacy
of Islam over all the other religions.

Thus he writes in Barahin-i
Ahmadiyyah:

"The last portion of the
revelation indicates that the Holy Prophet had mentioned
the appearance of this person in the above quoted
hadith and a reference has also been made in God's
revelation recorded in Volume III of this book. This
humble servant has been shown that in lowliness,
humility, trust in God, generosity, heavenly signs and
illumination, he is an example of the first life of the
Messiah. And the nature of this humble servant very much
resembles the nature of the Messiah as if they are two
pieces of the same jewel or two fruits of the same tree.
The spiritual triumph of the religion of Islam which
would be brought by conclusive arguments and shining
proofs, whether it is in his lifetime or after his death,
is destined to be accomplished through this humble
servant. Though the religion of Islam has been triumphant
from the beginning on account of its strong appeal to the
mind of man, and though from the earliest times its
opponents have met with disgrace and discomfiture, its
conquests over the different sects and nations depended
on the coming of a time which, by opening the ways of
communication, should turn the whole world into a kind of
united states. In short, in this age, every means for the
propagation of religion has reached its highest limit.
Although the world is overcast by darkness, yet the
circuit of perversion seems to have reached its end, the
power of moral deviation seems to be declining, as if it
has been God's will that healthy minds are devoting
themselves to the search of the straight path and good
and pure natures are falling in line with the state of
righteousness. The natural zeal of tauhid (unity
of Godhead) has turned worthy minds towards the pure and
clean spring of belief in the Oneness of God; and the
weakness of the worship of created things is becoming
apparent to the learned. The artificial gods are once
again putting on the robes of humanity in the eyes of the
wise. Moreover, heavenly help is being stirred up in such
a way for the support of the true religion that the
proofs and supernatural signs, by hearing about which
humble and weak servants of God were given the status of
Divinity, are now being manifested at the hands of the
ordinary servants of the Holy Prophet . Thus,
intellectually and spiritually, the spread of the truth
of the religion of Islam, depended on this age .
Thus, God intends, by raising me in this age and by
granting me hundreds of heavenly signs and vision of
extraordinary matters relating to the future, and deep
knowledge and also by giving me knowledge of hundreds of
sure arguments, to spread and propagate the knowledge of
the true teachings of the Quran among all the nations and
in all countries and to bring decisive proofs of the
truth of Islam against them. In short, God the Most
Forgiving, has granted to this humble servant, by His
favour and grace, the ways and means for the propagation
of Islam and in its support conclusive proofs and
arguments which had not been given to anyone in the
previous nations until now, and whatever unseen resources
have been given to this humble servant had not been given
to any of them before. That is God's grace; He gives
it to whom He pleases." 8

The need for an
organisation for the propagation of
Islam:The above passage clearly
shows the work for which the mujaddid of this age was
commissioned and the manner in which this work was entrusted
to him. The real object of his appointment was the
propagation of Islam so that conclusive proofs should be
given of its supremacy over other religions, and by refuting
all the false doctrines, the true teachings of Islam should
be spread.

The work of inviting to Islam, which
was particularly made obligatory for Muslims but of which
they had become extremely neglectful, should be revived.
Muslims should translate the following verse of the Quran in
their practical life:

And from among you there
should be a party who invite to good and enjoin the right
and forbid the wrong. And these are they who are
successful. 9

Inviting others to good, which in
other words is inviting to Islam, gets preference over
everything else. At another place in the Quran it is
stated:

Neither those who
disbelieve from among the people of the Book, nor the
polytheists, like that any good should be sent down to
you from your Lord.10

Here, the good (khair) stands
for the Quran, because all the paths of goodness are found
in the Quran. Therefore, according to the Divine command,
there should be a party from among the Muslims who should
always engage themselves in calling people to Islam. In the
earlier days of Islam all Muslims had that spirit breathed
into them so that they were all missionaries of Islam. Their
enthusiasm was such that in a short time they created a
great revolution in the world by their preaching. They
carried the message of Islam to different countries, such as
Afghanistan, China, India, Algeria, Africa, Iran, Turkistan,
Syria, etc. Then a time came when the Muslim rulers and the
rich became more engrossed in material luxuries than in the
work of Islam. The learned (`ulama) spent most of
their time in mutual wrangling about minor theological
points. In spite of that, many Muslim servants kept
themselves busy with inviting people to Islam, and the great
respect which is shown to them by thousands of people today
is only because of their service to Islam. They were, in
fact, the spiritual rulers of the Muslim world. When the
worldly kings gave up the work of the propagation of Islam
these spiritual kings took charge of this work. But alas!
nowadays the centres and seats of the great missionaries of
Islam have become only a means to earn money towards
upkeeping the controllers and owners of these centres so
that they may lead a luxurious life. These places have
become not only a source of quarrels and disputes but also
of religious deviations and innovations. Would that even a
fraction of their income was spent for the cause of
disseminating the teachings of Islam!

Then the Muslim nation would not have
reached the state of such disgrace! Would that the Muslim
kings had made some arrangements for the cause of spreading
Islam which would have saved their kingdoms from
destruction! However, when Muslims turned their backs on the
Divine injunctions - the kings hankered after a life of
luxury, the owners of the so-called spiritual seats yearned
for worldly goods and honour and the learned (`ulama)
wasted their time and energy in petty wrangling - the sacred
mission of invitation to Islam was totally abandoned. This
was the real cause of the downfall of Muslims. They threw
away with their own hands what was the source of life to
them and what they grabbed - physical luxuries and pleasures
and the accompanying greed to procure more of them - was, in
fact, the source of their destruction.

The negligence of
Muslims:What beautiful principles of
success were given to the Muslims in this pure book, the
Quran! Others derived benefit by following them and became
successful, but as far as Muslims were concerned, they
confirmed the truth of the following verse of the Quran in
their persons:

Surely my people treat
this Quran as a forsaken thing. 11

The Quran enjoined on its followers
that there should be a group among them who should carry on
inviting others to their faith. No other sacred scripture
has laid down this principle except the Quran, but in
practice it is only Muslims who have neglected this mission.
Followers of almost all the other religions are trying to
preach the doctrines of their religions to other nations. To
give up this struggle amounts to death for them. But Muslims
who were taught by the Quran not to be neglectful of this
work, pay no regard to it. They neither care for the
preaching of Islam nor have they set up any organisation for
training missionaries. They neither know the needs of the
Muslim world, nor do they know about the beliefs and
doctrines of other religions, nor do they pay any attention
to the attacks made against Islam by its opponents. It is
time to shed tears at the sad plight of Muslims; there is a
great spiritual treasure in their house but they are unaware
of it. Why has the existence of a party for carrying the
message of Islam to other people been given so much
importance in the Quran? Because without it the Muslim
nation could not survive. The history of the world bears
testimony to the fact that the moment a nation gave up the
struggle to increase its membership, decay and decline set
in in its house. Some people think that the decline of
Muslims was the result of the loss of their worldly kingdoms
and empires. The truth, however, is that the fall of Muslims
began when they started disregarding the work of inviting
others to Islam and the loss of worldly power was one of the
consequences of this neglect. When Muslims pay full
attention to the propagation of Islam, in its true spirit,
they will acquire the same splendour the promise of which is
given in these words: ula'ika humul-muflihun (these
are they who are successful) (3:103).

The greatest need
of Islam in this age is to propagate the teachings of
Islam:Thus, when in this age Muslims
were becoming heedless of the work of the propagation of
Islam, God revealed to the mujaddid of this century
to form an organisation for this great object. Every
mujaddid is assigned a task according to the needs of
his age. In these times Islam was being attacked from all
sides. The religion that was sent to prevail, "over all
religions" 12 was considered to be the weakest
of them all. Had God not supported His religion at this hour
of need it would have been difficult for Islam to stay alive
as a force in the world. This support for Islam was shown in
a thousand and one ways but the greatest favour God did to
Islam was that He commissioned the mujaddid of this
age to show to the world the face of Islam in its full
splendour. Thus, the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement
repeatedly emphasised in his writings such as Barahin-i
Ahmadiyyah and from the beginning and right up to the
end kept on proclaiming the fact that the real object of his
advent was the propagation of Islam and the exaltation of
the Word of God. And those who entered his movement had to
affirm:

"I will hold religion above
the world.''

The real object of this affirmation
was the formation of such a party which should devote itself
unitedly to the service of Islam. Every person who joins the
Ahmadiyya Movement, in fact, makes a promise that the main
aim of his life is to spread the message of
Islam.

The success of the
work of propagation:Of all the works, this,
undoubtedly, is the work of the greatest importance for
without it Muslims cannot survive. There are many other
innovations and deviations found among Muslims today - and
Muslims themselves stand in need of great reformation - but
God wanted first to cure the disease which was the root
cause of all the troubles. It was affecting not only a part
but the whole body of the Muslim community. The work of
establishing the truth of Islam by the mujaddid of
this age will be discussed by me separately. One thing,
however, which every person can understand is, that in spite
of all the opposition, the Founder, before his death, was
able to create an organisation, the object of which was the
propagation of Islam. He equipped his followers with
powerful arguments which proved very effective against all
false beliefs and doctrines. God has crowned with success
the efforts of this Jama'at in England, where Islam
is painted in the darkest of colours. Islam is becoming
popular there although it is the religion of a nation that
was ruled by the English people. In a few years' time, about
two hundred persons have entered the fold of

Islam and among these persons are
included lords, counts, majors, captains, professors,
editors, authors etc. The translation of the Quran into
English with notes and commentaries has been published and
this has laid a firm basis for the propagation of Islam.
This is all the work of the mujaddid of the
fourteenth century because it is he who laid its
foundation.